Dark Side of the Moon (Dark-Hunter 9)

He lunged at Ravyn only to have Dorian catch him. "Don't, Dad. He's not worth it."

Ravyn smiled sinisterly. Dorian had no idea just how right he was. "Yeah, Dad, I'm so not worth it."

"Get out," his father snarled, his voice thick with hatred, "and don't come back here ever. "

"Don't worry."

Ravyn started for the door until he realized that Susan was still following after him. What the hell was she thinking? "You need to stay here with the others."

"I don't think so."

"Susan..."

"Look," she said sternly, "you're the one who dragged me into all of this. No offense, Otto, Kyl, and Jessica look at me as if they want to kill me. I want to kill Erika and you're the only one of them who seems to be bulletproof. So between my choices, you look like the safest bet for my continued survival."

Even though his features were angry, there was a glint of humor in his black eyes. "Trust me, I'm not. I'm headed out there into the lion's den. If you stay here, the bad guys can't get you. But if you go with me, they can."

Maybe he was right, but something in her gut told her that she needed to stay with him, and if there was one thing in her life she'd learned to trust, it was her gut. "Ravyn-"

"Listen to him, human," a brittle voice said from behind her. "Getting innocent people killed is what he's best at."

Grief so profound that it took her breath flashed into Ravyn's eyes before he hid it. "Go to hell, Phoenix."

Susan turned to see a man behind her who was an exact duplicate of Dorian. The only reason she knew it wasn't him was that this guy had on a pair of jeans and a denim button-down shirt instead of the pleated pants and black shirt Dorian had been wearing.

Phoenix narrowed his eyes before Ravyn opened the door and stepped through it. Susan headed out behind him just as Otto and Leo were coming in from the back alley.

"Where you going, Ravyn?" Otto asked.

"To check on Cael."

Leo frowned. "We were going there t-"

"No," Ravyn said in a tone that brooked no argument. "We've already got one Squire MIA and I'm sure he's dead. No need to get another one of you killed. I'll handle it."

Otto scoffed. "Are you insane? You can't fight beside Cael. You'll just weaken each other."

That didn't seem to faze Ravyn at all. "I'll have a good fifteen minutes before being in his presence weakens me. So will Cael. Believe me, the two of us can do a lot of damage to anyone who might attack us in that amount of time. I'm pretty sure we'll be all right."

Otto shook his head. "Then I'm going with you."

"So am I," Leo said.

Ravyn growled at their unreasonable insistence on joining him. He couldn't stand the thought of anyone dying so needlessly. If he had more time, he'd waste it arguing with them. But he already had a bad feeling about one of the very few friends he'd had all these centuries. The last thing he wanted was to see Cael dead, and he was too tired to argue anymore. He needed to get over there and find out if Cael was still alive. And if Cael was dead, then he wanted to hunt for the ones responsible. "Fine."

Without another word, he got into his car, only to find Susan getting in on the passenger side.

"What are you doing?"

She gave him a blase stare. "I told you. I'm going with you."

Like he really wanted that. In truth, all he wanted right now was to be alone to deal with the turmoil of this day. "I thought you'd ride with Otto since, in direct contradiction to common sense, they're going, too."

She let out a very undignified snort. "And I told you that the man acts like he's looking for a reason to kill me. Not to mention he, unlike you, isn't Kevlar. "

Ravyn sighed as he started the car and dropped it into gear. He might be bulletproof, but he wasn't completely invincible. They could chop off his head and kill him easily enough. But he decided not to worry her with such trivial details.

"Where are we going?" Susan asked.

"Ravenna." Cael lived over by the university, in the basement of a less than refined club that was owned by a family of Apollites. Ravyn had been telling Cael for years that he was playing with nitro by having the enemy so close.

Sod off, he'd always say. I like danger. Besides, all I have to do is throw on some clothes, walk upstairs, kill a few Daimons, and come home. You can't beat that.

Ravyn only hoped his friend wasn't paying for that arrogance now.

"You okay?"

He glanced over to Susan. "Fine."

"You know when people say fine, it generally means 'leave me the hell alone because I don't want to talk about what's really bothering me.'"

"And sometimes it just means they're fine and there's nothing else to say. "

She made a face as she considered that. He could tell she wasn't buying it. "Maybe, but can I ask a question?"

Ravyn shrugged. "Free country, which means I don't have to answer it."

By her pinched features he knew that she didn't care for his answer. But after a few minutes, she turned toward him. "Knowing how they were going to treat you, why did you take Patricia to your family when you could have taken her to a hospital?"

Aggravated at the reminder of how much his family hated him, Ravyn tightened his grip on the leather steering wheel. He'd forgotten about the fact that Susan was a journalist, which made her observant and nosy-two things that were lethal to a man who didn't like to talk about his past or his present. Damn, he'd have to be more on guard around her.

He also knew that when dealing with such beasts, it was pointless to hedge. She would just pursue him until she had an answer... or he killed her.

Nah, they had enough problems without him doing that. Besides, she was oddly appealing to him. Especially the gentle curve of her lips and the way they turned up ever so slightly whenever she was waiting for him to answer her.

It was almost enough to make him drag this out...

But in the end, he answered her with the truth. "One, she wouldn't have been safe at a hospital. The Daimons can come and go there since it's public domain, and I have a feeling that they would have been back to finish her off since she's so significant in the Squire world. The only protection a human has against them is to be in the privacy of their own home. No Daimon can enter a private residence unless they've been invited in. Two, and most importantly, can you imagine trying to explain away the bite wound on her neck? I think the average doctor might get a little concerned to see what appears to be human teeth and yet not human teeth shredding a woman's neck. This was the easiest way to get her help without attracting unwanted attention from someone like, oh say, a journalist."